COMMENTARY all-but-dead waterway, they highlighted Salvaging and Scapegoating: the greening and beautification compo- nents which were to be implemented on Slum Evictions on a priority basis. The article continued (Ramakrishnan 2009): ’s Waterways [The government]…is keen that the re- trieved stretches of the Cooum banks are handed over…to the Chennai Corporation Karen Coelho, Nithya V Raman for turning the stretches into a green cover of the city, says [an] official…The civic body is contemplating…plans for converting the The latest he river Cooum, which cuts through retrieved stretches of the river into parks. restoration project in Chennai the centre of Chennai, is notorious Greenery and presence of walking paths for its stench and its sewage-laden, are the essential elements of such plans, the aims to focus on slum eviction T official adds. stagnant waters. Yet it carries a long history as an achievable first step. A of clean-up efforts, starting with the Cooum Simultaneously, in late 2009, plans 19-kilometre elevated expressway Improvement Project of 1967, through the were also announced for the construction on the river is also planned. central government-funded, Rs 1,200 crore of a 19-km elevated expressway on the Together estimated to displace Chennai City River Conservation Project river at a cost of over Rs 1,600 crore. This launched in 2001, to the latest project an- project of the National Highways Autho­ over 18,000 families from the nounced with great fanfare in late 2009. rity of India (NHAI) was designed to facili- banks of the Cooum, these two This one, estimated to cost another Rs 1,200 tate the movement of container trucks projects testify to how waterfront crore, is projected as the personal mission from the national highway at Maduravoy- development, beautification, of M K Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister of al to the . Instead of aug- Tamil Nadu and son of Chief Minister menting the existing straight road con- and eco-restoration, along M Karunanidhi. The project is to be nection along High Road, with high-end infrastructure planned by the Public Utilities Board of the consultants Wilbur Smith Associates serve multiple purposes – both Singapore and modelled on the Singapore proposed a much longer alignment, close- as direct strategies for capital River Restoration Project. ly following the sharply curving path of However, given the legacy of failed resto- the Cooum. This choice was justified in accumulation through real estate ration efforts and the current state of the the feasibility report as follows (Wilbur value, as well as idioms through river, any pronouncement on the water­way, Smith Associates 2008: 2.1): which cities position themselves as Devasahayam (2009) claims, “has low Taking the project road along the river in the global arena. credibility”. The latest Cooum restoration banks has the following clear advantages. … project makes its bid for credibility by pro- Construction of such project road will result posing to cut through the thicket of familiar in the evacuation of slum areas present along the riverbanks... (emphasis added) problems typically besetting river cleaning efforts,1 and focusing on slum eviction as Thus, manipulating the curving con- an achievable first step. This shortcut tours of a natural flow into the format of a ­approach is openly announced, confidently high-speed corridor, despite its seeming addressing a growing urban middle class inefficiency, apparently yields collateral constituency who hold slum-dwellers value addition in the form of slum clearance. ­responsible for the state of the rivers, and Infrastructure development projects in regard their summary removal as the crux globalising cities, thus, compress multiple of eco-restoration. Thus, a press article rationalities of neoliberal governance into ­announcing the Cooum restoration plan in their proposals: the creation of infrastruc- 2009 stated (Ramakrishnan 2009): ture assets, enhancement of commercial A host of factors has contributed to the values, and promotion of real estate invest- Cooum problem. …Conscious of the fact that ments are all mutually reinforcing drives. some options for attacking the problem Within this closed circuit of raisons d’état, consume more time, the authorities are now beautification, restoration and development focusing on one aspect – removing encroach- ments in the city limits and developing the serve as metonyms for slum clearance. Karen Coelho ([email protected]) is at areas retrieved into parks. This will ensure the Madras Institute of Development Studies. aesthetic appeal and utility. Faulty Design, Poor Procedure, Nithya Raman ([email protected]) is at While most announcements about the Hasty Implementation the Institute for Financial Management river restoration carried scant information Together, the two projects are expected to and Research. on the proposed action plan for reviving the displace over 18,000 families from the

Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 22, 2010 vol xlv no 21 19 COMMENTARY banks of the Cooum, according to the gov- cause ­stagnation of sewage-laden river Waterfront development, beautification, ernment’s own estimates.2 Evictions were waters during non-rainy seasons and and eco-restoration, along with high-end launched with a fury in late 2009 by the ­inundation of adjoining areas during the infrastructure, are both direct strategies for Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) monsoon ­season. capital accumulation through real estate in fulfilment of the state government’s sole All the speakers agreed that the two value as well as idioms through which cities role in the elevated corridor project, that projects along the Cooum, apart from position themselves in the global arena. of securing the land. As with most “world- being poorly planned, contradicted one These rationalities explain, at least in part, class infrastructure” projects across the another in intent and effect. These contra- the seeming incoherence of the simultane- country, the evictions were characterised dictions can only be understood by con- ous proposals to restore the Cooum and to by procedural violations, irregularities and sidering the context from which these build an elevated highway into its banks. illegalities on the part of governmental projects have emerged. Indeed, all waterways in Chennai are agencies, both at state and central levels. currently being viewed as potential hosts Most egregious were those provoked by Eco-restoration and to elevated road corridors. The ambitious the unseemly and illegal haste with which Transport Corridors integrated Chennai High Speed Circular the project was pushed through. Waterways restoration efforts must be his- Transportation Corridor (HSCTC) plan com- In January 2010, the ministry of environ- torically situated within shifting political- prises nine corridors along the Adyar and ment and forests at the centre refused envi- economic imperatives and ruling mentali- Cooum rivers and the Buckingham and ronmental clearance for the elevated ex- ties that shape the governance of urban canals (Division of Transporta- pressway as a section of it fell within the nature. Competitive efforts by city and tion Engineering 2009). The figure of the inter-tidal zone along the river, in violation state governments to attract global invest- “corridor” is another powerful symbol of of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules. Be- ment, reliant on credit ratings by inde- the globalising city, an idiom that inte- fore obtaining such mandatory clearances, pendent agencies, critically alter the grates structure, ecology, commerce and the foundation stone for the expressway meanings and values associated with governance. Information Technology (IT) had already been laid by the prime minister ­water in the urban landscape. In Chennai, corridors, hi-tech corridors, metro corridors in January 2009. The contract had been as in other Indian cities, water bodies and and elevated corridors are emblems of new awarded to Soma Enterprises, and an ini- waterways are now, above all, emblems of urban visions in which flows are channelled tial payment of Rs 260 crore handed over the city’s aspiration to world-class status. and strategically optimised for mobility, to the contractors (Devasahayam 2010). By December 2009, with the restoration pro­ ject still in an inception stage, nearly 5,000 INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE Dr V.K.R.V. Road, Nagarabhavi PO: Bangalore-560 072 (Karnataka) families from at least four slums along the Phone: 23215468 extn -112, 23217011, Fax: 91-080 23217008, river banks had been forcibly and prema- E-mail: [email protected]; www.isec.ac.in turely evicted for the two projects. In March 2010, the project came under the scrutiny ADVERTISEMENT NO. NA/1/2010 of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Applications/Nominations are invited for the post of REGISTRAR of the for a range of alleged irregularities. Institute in the pay scale of Rs.12,000-420-18,300 (Pre-revised) plus Both the proposed projects on the allowances. Candidates should be (a) a Post Graduate with minimum 50% Cooum, separately and together, encoun- marks, (b) must have minimum 10 years of working experience in General tered stringent criticism from independ- Administration and Institutional Management, Human Resource Development, ent experts and professionals in the city. Personnel Management and in all aspects of campus management including Hospitality, Facilities, Events and Security Management. At a seminar held at the Madras Institute of Development Studies in February 2010, The age of retirement of Registrar is 62 years. Retired officers of the a panel of speakers, including transporta- Army/Navy/Air force who are of age to give more than two/three years of tion engineers and urban governance ex- service are eligible to apply. perts, identified serious technical flaws in Application Form and full details regarding the essential and desirable the expressway’s design, as well as a host qualifications, age, job responsibilities, experience, terms and conditions of governance failures relating to manda- of appointment, mode of selection, remuneration etc., are available on the tory clearances and procedures for evic- Institute’s web site www.isec.ac.in. The Selection Committee reserves tions and resettlement (Venkat 2010). the right to reject any or all applications without assigning any reason. Hydro­logy experts and environmentalists pointed out that tampering with the depth The applications complete in all respects addressed to the Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Dr V K R V Rao Road, Nagarabhavi and width of the river could have serious P.O., Bangalore 560 072, should reach on or before 5th July 2010. adverse impacts on the river’s already Internal candidates possessing the required qualifications may also apply. fragile ecology, and that, regardless of ­assurances about mitigating measures, an ASSISTANT REGISTRAR (ADMN) expressway built into the riverbed would

20 may 22, 2010 vol xlv no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY connectivity and speed. The river corridor were once seen as land-in-the-making, to The profound change in Tamil Nadu’s thus both engineers the landscape and be filled and reclaimed for bus-stops, in- political climate relating to issues of the signals a new paradigm of urbanisation. stitutions, housing projects and dump environment and the poor was evidenced More than 36,000 families, or close to two yards, they are now seen as lakes-in-the- in the Tank Encroachment Act passed in lakh people, are expected to be evicted making, to be cleared, dredged, de-silted May 2007. This act ignored or reversed from slums along these waterways to ac- and beautified. These shifting rationali- long-established policies guiding slum commodate these high-speed corridors. ties are underpinned by transformations clearance in Tamil Nadu and vested un- Also being reproduced on other water- in conceptions of the urban – from devel- precedented powers in the Public Works ways of Chennai is the paradoxical partner- opmentalist visions of cities as sites of so- Department and the District Collector’s ship of eco-restoration with real estate cial and economic mobility and catalysts Office to effect evictions, entirely bypass- development and elevated corridors, with of modernity for the region, to neoliberal ing the TNSCB. The thrust on reviving stor- sorry consequences for the river. The Adyar visions of cities as strategic nodes for the age capacity in water bodies received Poonga Trust (APT) formed by the govern- operations of financial globalisation. powerful political backing from the state’s ment of Tamil Nadu in 2007 to restore the It was not until the 1990s that water ministers, members of the legislative estuarine creek near the mouth of the Adyar officially came into its own in Chennai, as ­assembly (MLAs) and members of Parlia- river, opted to create an eco-park on one the concept of “ecological value” began to ment (MPs) in the late 2000s. Slum evic- section of the creek, for which hundreds figure in official planning documents, and tion drives have thus recently received a of huts were evicted, and thousands more increasingly to overlap with commercial special impetus by being located in two homes of the poor threatened with demo- value.3 The government’s compulsion to convergent strands of apparently progres- lition. However, these efforts to restore the demonstrate concern for environmental sive “salvage” discourses: one of ecologi- creek were already moot as the government issues resulted partly from its participation cal restoration and the other of slum reset- had, over the preceding decade, permitted in global platforms such as the Sustainable tlement with promises of “secure tenure”. intensive development in the form of IT Chennai Project (SCP)4 partly from the am- What disrupts this tight compact, how- office buildings, multi-storied luxury resi- plified voice that local civil society envi- ever, is the fact that the mass relocation dential complexes and five-star hotels on ronmental groups had achieved, and part- colonies are almost always sited on low-lying the remainder of the estuarine lands near ly from the increased severity of droughts marshlands or flood plains on the city’s the mouth of the river, irreversibly dam- interspersed and alternating with floods, ­peripheries. According to environmental- aging the fragile ecology of the creek. which created unprecedented crises in the ists, Chennai’s notorious Kannagi Nagar, a The APT, meanwhile, has diversified its city. More serious attention to flood alle- slum resettlement colony housing 15,000 role to developing proposals for large-scale viation, water harvesting and rainwater families, built on land reclaimed from the transport projects for the city, and has been conservation through water body recla- marsh, has contributed to the entrusted with implementation of the mation and restoration began to be articu- recent intensification of flooding in that integrated elevated corridor project along lated, for instance in Chennai’s Second area as well as the significant reduction of Chennai’s waterways. This new role should Master Plan (2007) and in the planning groundwater. For residents of Kannagi Na- come as no surprise, as the eco-restoration documents of the Chennai Metropolitan gar, their continued susceptibility to floods of the Adyar creek was initially entrusted to Water Supply and Sewerage Board, also is now exacerbated by the added vulnera- the Tamil Nadu Road Development Corpo- known as Metro Water. bilities of livelihood loss, severe liquidity ration, a special purpose vehicle formed to That these policies were also seen as crunches and chronic indebtedness, conse- build toll roads. The APT itself is coordinated opportunities to clear the poor out of the quences of their distance from the econom- by the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure city and from prime locations in adjoining ic opportunities of the city. In April 2010, Financial Services Limited, an infrastruc- municipalities is clear from the conver- newspapers reported the sinking of multi- ture financing agency. The trust, recently gence that began to emerge, both discur- storied tenement blocks built for slum- renamed the Chennai Rivers Restoration sively and in funding schemes, between dwellers on a tank bed at Ammankulam Trust, will also be charged with imple- these flood mitigation/water harvesting near Coimbatore, vindicating fears that menting the Cooum restoration project, programmes and the increasingly force- Kannagi Nagar residents expressed about further evidence of how much eco-restora- fully articulated visions of a “slum-free their location on a marsh.5 tion itself has become part of the requisite Chennai”. The TNSCB from the 1990s began infrastructure of the world-class city. to focus its energies on large-scale con- Slums as Scapegoats struction of resettlement colonies on the Scapegoating the poor has become part of Epochs of Environmentality urban peripheries, financed substantially the official discourse of salvaging urban Historical shifts in rationalities that con- by money from the central government’s ecologies over the past two decades. nect municipal governance to paradigms flood alleviation programme, World Bank- Chennai’s City Development Plan, written of spatial planning and social engineering sponsored post-tsunami projects and the for the JNNURM in 2005, stated that some are also evidenced in the case of water Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renew- 35,000 households squatting on “objec- bodies in Chennai. Where urban water al Mission (JNNURM), which also funds tionable locations” on the city’s riverbanks bodies such as eris, ponds and marshes water body restoration projects in Chennai. would have to be removed as they were

Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 22, 2010 vol xlv no 21 21 COMMENTARY EPW Workshop on Research Writing and Publication in the Social Sciences July 12-17, 2010 Organised by UGC-Academic Staff College, University of Hyderabad

Applications are invited for the six-day Research Writing and Publication Workshop that will be held in Hyderabad between 12 and 17 July. The workshop, organised by the UGC-Academic Staff College, University of Hyderabad, will offer young faculty and post- doctoral scholars from central and state universities in south, east and north-east India an opportunity to learn and discuss the techniques of research writing and publication. The workshop will (i) help participants understand how to structure research papers effectively, (ii) enhance their ability to critique, edit and review their own work, and (iii) familiarize them with the academic publication process. An important component of the workshop will be a discussion and revision of draft research papers prepared by participants. This workshop is being conducted as part of a project funded by the University Grants Commission and executed by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and the Economic and Political Weekly. The modules in the workshop include • Structure of research papers • Writing up research methodology • Plagiarism and ethics of research • Results and data presentation • Journal selection: Writing for an audience • Writing the introduction and conclusion • Citation styles, using footnotes and endnotes • How to critique a manuscript • Organising the argument • How to revise a manuscript • On use/abuse of language • Publication process/formatting for submission • Literature review • Draft research papers: Feedback and revision Resource Persons: This workshop will be conducted by resource persons from the Economic and Political Weekly, the University of Hyderabad and other universities who have experience in writing, editing and publishing research papers. The workshop will be structured as an intensive mix of lectures, presentations, and group discussions. The focus will be on interactive participation. Who Is Eligible? Young faculty and post-doctoral research scholars from the social sciences, commerce and management. For the July workshop applications are invited only from scholars affiliated to central and state universities in the southern (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu), eastern (Orissa, West Bengal and Sikkim), and all north-eastern states, and union territories in the region. (A second workshop to be held in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, in August 2010 will be organised for researchers in the western and northern states) Travel and Accommodation: Travel costs of selected participants will be covered as per UGC-Academic Staff College, University of Hyderabad regulations. Participants will be provided accommodation in the University of Hyderabad guest house and will be eligible for TA and DA as per UGC rules. Application Forms and Registration Fee: Application forms are available on request at the address given below or from the Academic Staff College, University of Hyderabad. The Brochure and application form can also be downloaded from http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/admin/uploads/events/Workshop_Research_Writing.pdf Please submit a demand draft of Rs 500 in favour of “The Director, UGC-Academic Staff College, University of Hyderabad”, payable at Hyderabad, along with the application form. Important Dates: Last date for Receipt of Applications: June 1, 2010 Selection June 10, 2010 Selected participants confirm participation: June 25, 2010 Selected candidates send in draft research papers June 25, 2010 (Papers must be sent only after candidates are informed about selection) Address for Correspondence: The Director UGC-Academic Staff College University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad-500 046. Tel. No: 040 – 23132711/23010834 Fax: 040 – 23010834. Email: [email protected] web site: http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/academic/academic_outreach/academic_staff_college/index.html

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22 may 22, 2010 vol xlv no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY polluting the water with raw sewage. This ­collective action against evictions, once Notes claim was never officially substantiated, again resulting from a convergence of sev- 1 These problems include stopping industrial dump- ing and sewage outfalls, enforcing regulations, even though it contradicted available eral interconnected trends. The hardening and achieving coordination among the multiple evidence.6 The state’s resolve to evict slum- stance of state agencies towards squatting agencies involved in the rivers’ sustenance. 2 The TNSCB, in response to a Right to Information dwellers a priori is also evidenced by the in the inner city and the strenuous outreach (RTI) application, estimated the number of families response of the TNSCB in 2004 to a study and persuasion efforts by the trained social to be evicted for the elevated corridor at 12,000. The figure of 6,000 for the restoration project is commissioned by Metro Water on low-cost workers of the TNSCB’s Community Deve­ derived from Ramakrishnan (2009). sanitation for slums on the city’s water- lopment Wing resulted in relocation be- 3 The Sustainable Chennai Project (SCP), launched 7 in 1995 by the United Nations Human Settlements ways. Instead of exploring the options coming an acceptable option among slum- Programme, UN-HABITAT and the United Nations proposed by the study, the board dismissed dwellers in the 1980s. The growth of the Environment Programme (UNEP) to build capacity in urban environmental planning and manage- the report with a short note: “As it is pro- state-sponsored self-help group movement ment, and locally coordinated by the Chennai posed to rehabilitate all the waterways in slums, mediated through non-govern- Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), 8 was a prominent example of attempts to main- families, this study may not be helpful.” mental organisations (NGOs), fostered rela- stream commercial and financial stakes in resto- Thus, a potentially feasible and low-cost tions of patronage and cooptation between ration of water bodies. The project identified waterways cleaning as one of its four priority option for improving conditions in slums the state and NGOs and between NGOs and issues, and the principal stakeholders listed in and reducing their environmental impact on slum associations. Gradual changes in the its documents included “chambers of industry and commerce”, and “financing institutions for the river was dropped in favour of the high- occupancy of slums, a strengthening grip of water front development” along with government cost resettlement of 35,000 households. divisive party politics in slum communities, agencies. Apart from some prominent NGOs, the public were not included in the list. That slum eviction as a line item has and the gentrification ofTNSCB tenements, 4 See: Metro Water (2004): “Consultancy for a become the primary measure of river res- combined with the state’s persuasive tac- Comprehensive Sanitation and Solid Waste Man- agement Plan including Low-Cost Sanitation for toration is also indicative of a specific his- tics, weakened the cohesion needed to the Slums Located in the Banks of Chennai City torical moment in urban politics and gov- stand up to eviction drives (Raman 2008; Waterways”, Chennai. 5 Interview with Latha, Kannagi Nagar resident, ernance. While clearing encroachments Coelho and Venkat 2009). 22 January 2010. on river banks has figured in river-clean- These historical shifts in the govern- 6 A 1989 consultancy report entitled “Environ­ mental Improvement of Watercourses of Greater ing action plans for decades, it was usually ance of urban water and of the urban poor Madras” by Severn Trent International, commis- much lower on the list of interventions, are reflected in the transformed cultural sioned by the Corporation of Madras, found that less than 1% of the pollution in the river was partly because the political and policy cli- and political imaginary of rivers in Chen- attributable to the slums. In 1995, a report titled mate in Chennai until the 1980s made this nai. This is most eloquently evidenced by “Action Plan for Urban Waterways Improvement in Madras and Varanasi”, by Abt Associates con- a difficult task to accomplish. the recent projects on the Cooum, a river cluded that untreated or partially-treated efflu- Until the mid to late 1980s, evictions that has long been an emblem of DMK rule. ents from Metro Water’s sewerage plants and pumping stations were by far the most important and relocations were largely avoided by Housing masses of Chennai’s working sources of pollution in the Cooum and Adyar rivers. an established tradition that interpreted poor and many small industries along its 7 Refer to end note 4. “slum clearance” as in situ improvement banks, the Cooum symbolised the party’s 8 TNSCB (2004): Note dated 11 May, illegible signature. of slums through tenement construction sustained populist hegemony among the or sites-and-services schemes. This tradi- city’s working classes. With the changing References tion was established through a dialogic electoral calculus of the late 1980s and Coelho, Karen and T Venkat (2009): “The Politics of process of negotiation and accommoda- 1990s, the All India Anna Dravida Munne- Civil Society: Neighbourhood Associationism in Chennai”, Economic & Political Weekly, 44(26 & tion between the electoral strategies of tra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) electoral suc- 27): 358-67. the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), cesses in Chennai in the recent past, and Devasahayam, M G (2009): “Cleaning Up the Cooum”, the official policies of theTNSCB , and anti- compulsions to competitively demonstrate New Indian Express, 22 December. – (2010): “Policy and Decision-Making Processes eviction struggles in the city. However, a capacities for a neoliberal transformation Involved in Elevated Expressway Projects, in the concatenation of processes through the of the city, the DMK, in its current run, has Context of Statutory Planning Procedures”, presented in Development and Destruction on 1980s and early 1990s led to the collapse reprised the Cooum as a different kind of a Waterway, Madras Institute of Development of this anti-eviction “compact” and inau- embodiment of its “progressive” rule. Studies, Chennai, 6 February. Division of Transportation Engineering (2009): gurated an era of negotiations over slum Recent Cooum projects, with their sin- “Pre-feasibility Study on the Proposed Road relocation and resettlement. gular agendas of slum evictions, are Alignment Along Water Courses of Chennai”, prepared for Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure The World Bank’s funding of urban capped by the grandiose new government Financial Services Limited by College of Engineer- development programmes in Tamil Nadu complex that was recently inaugurated ing, , Chennai. Ramakrishnan, T (2009): “Cooum Project Keeps from the late 1970s, particularly in the on one end of the river bank, built at a Hopes Afloat”,, 9 December. housing sector, brought about a restructur- cost of Rs 200 crore by the German firm Raman, Nithya (2008): “The Politics and Anti-Politics of Shelter Policies in Chennai, India”, Master’s ing of the TNSCB, primarily through dis­ GMP International. It is widely seen as a Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. solving its formal connections with the swansong bid by the 85-year old chief Venkat, T (2010): “Development and Destruction on a Waterway”, Report of the seminar held at the Madras ­political sphere and loosening its depend- minister, who seemed intent on running Institute of Development Studies, 6 February. ence on state budgets. The 1990s also saw his government from the new building in Wilbur Smith Associates (2008): “Final Feasibility a gradual weakening and eventual col- his lifetime. Thus are the changing politics Report for 4-lane Elevated Expressway from Chennai Port to on NH-4”, NHAI, lapse of slum-based, struggle-oriented of the city inscribed on this river of the city. New Delhi.

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